Letters

Having served as the Biology Librarian at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill for over 21 years, I have had frequent contact with the librarian and
SILS students at the EPA Library. In fact, some of our library graduate students
transferred to the EPA Library to gain additional science librarianship experience
there. This article provided a succinct and factual overview of the relationship
of the EPA Library and SILS program, therefore giving me pertinent background on
this relationship. I am pleased to know that someone has now documented this
unique relationship between UNC and EPA. --Many thanks for publishing this valuable
addition to the library literature.

I keep telling myself that I should care less, but I was delighted to read the
paper covering training of science and technology librarians at the Environmental
Protection Agency Library at Research Triangle Park, SC. I am retired! I have for
years personally thought that library schools were missing out on a tremendous
opportunity by not training those with the right bend of mind in the scientific and
technical arena. Oh, I know that they have courses covering the science and
technology reference tools either as part of the general reference courses or as
separate Sci/Tech course. A few library schools stand out in front of the others in
this aspect. I went to the normal library school, which trained school or public
librarians in the 1960s. Then I found the challenge of technical research
libraries. A lot of the customer demands were foreign to my training. To do a
literature search on any subject takes understanding of the subject and intent of
the researcher. To find training in this area on a practical basis was in my mind
non-existent until I read this article. Perhaps this article is telling me that
other library schools exist that are doing the same thing. I also hope that they
are covering handling of proprietary and classified information, the antitheses of
ALA's stand on access to information. I also hope they have courses on how to
present a budget proposal, cataloging and classification of lab notebooks, letters,
memorandums and the multitude of peculiar items that are brought to the tech
library. Some of my successors probably mutter under their breath as they do market
research compilations, patent searches, papers on knowledge (or information)
management, and other odd library functions. I am convinced that there is a
relationship between the level of library service and the stability of the
corporate organization. However, that is another subject. Thank you, for having
this publication online. I must still care.